Reading Standard Etc 03-1915

BERKSHIRE MEN IN THE BATTLE LINE.

"The call for men to join our fighting forces, which is our primary need, has been and is being nobly responded to both at home and throughout the Empire, and that call---we say it with all plainness and directness---was never more urgent or more imperious that to-day"--- Mr. Asquith.
OUR TERRITORIALS IN TRAINING.
The recruits of the Berkshire Yeomanry and other Territorial units at Bear Wood continue to make remarkable progress in physique and military efficiency. The other day the troops were inspected by officers of high rank, a scene which we publish above, and showed that they will be worthy supports of their comrades on the coast.

"We might have seen our homes ruined, our churches desecrated. And yet they tell us that there are those at home who still regard their personal comfort as of more importance than their country's safety. Is it that they do not realise what war means? What will arouse them from their awful lethargy?"---A Territorial at the Front.
The late Sergt. ROBERT WILKINS, 3rd Batt. King's Royal Rifle Corps, 12, John A'Larder's Buildings, Bridge Street, Reading. - Killed in action. Seven years' service. Aged 25.
The late Pte. J. HARRISON, 2nd Batt. Royal Berkshire Regiment, Chilton Foliat, Hungerford. - Died of wounds. Aged 26.
The late Pte. J. H. SEYMOUR, 1st Cameronian Highlanders, 18, Albany Road, Reading. - Killed in action.
Major O. C. BORRETT, 2nd Batt. King's Own Royal Lancaster Regt., son of Major-General Borrett, Lancaster Lodge, Bath Road, Reading. - Wounded in the shoulder.
Pte. B. DORE, A Co., 2nd Batt. Royal Berkshire Regt., Kidmore End, Reading. - Wounded in the head.
Sergt. EDWARD BURGESS, 1st Batt. Royal Berkshire Regt., Lower Armour, Tilehurst. - Wounded in the cheek.
ALBERT THOMAS GIBBS, 2nd Batt. Royal Berkshire Regt., Childrey. - In hospital with bad feet.
Lce.-Corpl. F. G. DILLING, C Co., 1st Batt. Royal Berkshire Regiment. The Gardens, Stanford Dingley. - Wounded, now convalescent.
Pte. B. HUNTLEY, 1st Batt. Royal Berkshire Regt., Boxford, near Newbury. - Wounded.
Pte. W. SEYMOUR, 1st Batt. Royal Berkshire Regiment, 103, Liverpool Road, Reading. - Wounded in the right shoulder and lung.
Pte. F. J. WEBB, 2nd Batt. Royal Berkshire Regt., late of Woodley. - Frostbitten, toe amputated.
The late JESSE BROOKER, Childrey, Grenadier Guards. - Killed in action.
Pte. T. DUDMAN, South Wales Borderers, late of 9, South Street, Caversham. - Wounded and missing.
Pte. CHARLES WARRICK, 2nd Batt. Royal Berkshire Regiment. - Wounded in the back. Brother of Mrs. Parsons, 34, Cranbury Road, Reading, whose brother John, in the 1st Berkshires, was killed in action.
Pte. R. SHEPHERD, Royal Scots Fusiliers, 88, Rupert Street, Reading. - Wounded.
Pte. C. MARTIN, 4th Hussars, 99, Cumberland Road, Reading. - Sick with pneumonia and frostbite.
ARMY SERVICE CORPS. - Another branch of the Berkshire Territorial Force which is being rapidly licked into shape is the reserve Army Service Corps., also at Bear Wood. No branch of His Majesty's Forces has rendered more valuable service than the A.S.C. An army marches, and fights, on its stomach, and the first-rate commissariat arrangements at the front have played a great part in fitting Mr. Atkins to so successfully withstand the many hardships he has to undergo.
Honour the brave!
This district claims its quota of men who have been mentioned in despatches for especially good service in the field and who have been recommended by Sir John French for medals and orders. To the portraits we have already published of local men mentioned in despatches we have pleasure in adding those of Major A. W. Bartholomew, son of that well-known townsman Mr. A. C. Bartholomew, Parkside-road, Reading, who has been awarded the D.S.O.; Sergt. C. W. Mutters, an old boy of St. Laurence's school; Coy.-Sergt.-Major G. Smith, of patriotic little Sparsholt on the Berkshire Downs; and Corpl. G. G. Titchener, of Bradfield, each of whom has earned the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES.
Major A. W. BARTHOLOMEW, D.S.O., son of Mr. A. C. Bartholomew, Parkside Road, Reading.
Sergt. C. W. MUTTERS, 2nd Batt. Manchester Regt., 53, Weldale St., Reading.
Coy.-Sergt.-Major G. SMITH, 1st Batt. Royal Berks Regiment, Sparsholt.
Corpl. G. G. TITCHENER, 1st Batt. Royal Berks Regiment, Bradfield.
The act for which Corpl. Titchener was mentioned by Sir John French was one that illustrated the grit and spirit of self-sacrifice in the ranks of the Royal Berkshire Regiment. His officer being severely wounded, Titchener called for volunteers, with whose help he carried the officer to a place of safety, a distance of over two miles, under a shower of bullets and shrapnel. For this act Titchener was promoted Corporal on the field. A short time after he himself was wounded and invalided home. Company-Sergt.-Major Smith, also in the 1st Berkshires, earned the D.C.M. for an act during an engagement which resulted in the enemy's trenches being taken and seventy Germans being captured.
SOME BRITISH REMOUNTS.
The soldiers in our picture will be readily recognised as British Tommies. These remounts are waiting outside what the rigorous censorship will not permit to be more precisely defined as "a Continental railway station". The invariable cheerfulness and good temper of our troops is clearly indicated in their faces, which show no sign that the actualities of war are depressing their spirits.
8TH BERKSHIRES LOSE A COMRADE.
No less impressive than the funeral of a soldier of long service was the obsequies of a private of the 8th Batt. Royal Berks Regiment the other day. The deceased, George William East, used to be employed at St. Pancras passenger station, and six of his old comrades in railway uniform followed the coffin. Further, part of the battalion marched to the Cemetery in slow procession and the Veterans' Band played funeral marches. At the conclusion of the graveside service a volley was fired and "The Last Post" sounded.
PASSPORTS, PLEASE!
The passport has a real value in time of war, as anyone trying to move about in either the Eastern or the Western areas of war would soon discover. Our picture shows the men of the Kaiser's Landsturm carrying out the work of inspection in Poland. One sentinel is seen holding up a traveller on the high road while the other examines his passports.